3 religion essays

The Wedding at Cana Jesus’ 1st Sign

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Overview

In this presentation we will:

Break down the Wedding of Cana to see what is happening

Look at the way the Catechism uses this passage

Look at what this says about our redemption

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John 2:1-11 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” [And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

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Breaking it down On the third day

The day of the resurrection

there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee,

Wedding is the two becoming one

and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

The people who are the beginning of the Church

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Breaking it down When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

Mary intercedes with her Son, not as a request but by saying the problem

[And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”

Jesus appears to blow her off. It is not the “time” of his death & resurrection

His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”

These are Mary’s last recorded words in the bible. She always points us to Jesus.

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Breaking it down Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

120-180 gallons. The jars are for washing (purity). Six, short of perfect.

Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it.

Jesus commands and the servants act. We are the servants of Christ.

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Breaking it down

And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew),

The headwaiter and others didn’t see a miracle. They were present and blind.

the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

What has happened here is better than what happened before: The Gospel is better than the Law; Jesus is better than the O. T.

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Breaking it down

Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee

This is the 1st of 7 signs pointing to Jesus’ own resurrection

and so revealed his glory,

To see his glory is to see who Jesus really is

and his disciples began to believe in him.

The disciples were already following him, this is more, to believe Jesus is the Word become flesh

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Breaking it down

There is more going on:

John answered and said, “You yourselves can testify that I said [that] I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.” (Jn. 3:27-29)

This means if J Bap is the best man; then Jesus is the Bridegroom. Meaning that the head waiter says to JESUS: “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

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What the CCC says about Jesus at Cana

486 The Father’s only Son, conceived as man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, is “Christ,” that is to say, anointed by the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of his human existence, though the manifestation of this fact takes place only progressively: to the shepherds, to the magi, to John the Baptist, to the disciples. Thus the whole life of Jesus Christ will make manifest “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.”

1335 The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist. The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus’ glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father’s kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ.

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What the CCC says about Mary at Cana

495 Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord.” In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).

2618 The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana, the mother of Jesus asks her son for the needs of a wedding feast; this is the sign of another feast—that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the cross, that Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true “Mother of all the living.”

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What the CCC says about Marriage at Cana

1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign—at his mother’s request—during a wedding feast. The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.

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Cana and our Redemption This sign of Jesus’ Glory applies to our Redemption in this way:

Cana is the wedding of Christ courting us to become his bride;

Cana is the first sign of Eucharist - Water to wine then wine to Blood

Cana is the reality of Mary’s intercession for us

Cana points to the Church as the Bride of Christ; to the Eucharist as the celebration of our union with Christ; and our participation in the Prayers of Mary and the Saints as “be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones” (Eph 6:18)

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